All week a thought has rambled around my brain: this is not a dress rehearsal. It’s dancing with another thought: If not now, when? Author Lyn Fairchild Hawks takes the stage at Bacon today, reflecting on her journey as a…
Another week, another airport purchase: this time, The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. It seemed time to pick up a book that has sold over 150 million copies worldwide, in 80 different languages, since its publication in 1998. What magic lies…
I picked up Jami Attenberg’s memoir on the fly at the airport, looking for a small paperback that would fit in my handbag. It was a good choice: it fit, and then I couldn’t put it down. I don’t think…
Styleblueprint asked me to write an article on Books Every Southerner Should Read. I went all the way down the rabbit hole on this one. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on an assignment! As part of my…
There comes a point in the night when you just give up (speaking for myself, of course). Your tricks and techniques for getting back to sleep have failed. What’s next? Acceptance. For me, that looks like turning on the lamp beside the…
On a friend’s recommendation, I picked up the 1970 classic, Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person, by Hugh Prather. Color me impressed! Enchanted, even. It seems a perfect artifact of its time, in its zen-flavored earnestness, and…
Have you seen the Apple TV+ series “Severance”? Color me obsessed with this smart and suspenseful exploration of memory and identity. I’d put it in a category with “Stranger Things”, “The X-Files”, and “Twin Peaks” for imaginative brilliance, haunting visuals,…
Billy Collins’ newest collection, “Musical Tables,” sings tiny melodies with perfect pitch. “Small poems are drastic examples of poetry’s way of squeezing large content into tight spaces,” Collins writes in the afterward. “The small poem is a flash, a…
Happy New Year, Bacon friends! I wish you contentment or change in the days ahead – whatever you need most. Thank you for keeping me company on the journey. Today’s post offers 10 terrific books for the season (and beyond). Most…